This invention relates to a method of preparing hard copies by forming a transparent coating layer on a recording medium in areas where image has been recorded by printer or the like.
Using today's image processing technology, one can obtain high-quality image by reading an object with a scanner or camera. However, when the recorded object is output by printer or the like to produce a hard copy, the texture of the object is not easy to represent appropriately by utilizing its gloss, fine asperities on its surface and the like.
One way to express the texture of an object is processing by computer graphics (CG). For example, in three-dimensional data on computer screen that represents the object, specular reflectance, diffusive reflectance and other parameters are defined as texture-representing information and a rendering process is performed to calculate two-dimensional data and represent it as a two-dimensional image. However, even if a printer or the like is employed to prepare such two-dimensional image as a hard copy, it is difficult to represent the texture of the object appropriately in the hard copy on the basis of specular reflection and diffusive reflection.
JP 11-277724A and JP 2000-141708A disclose methods of preparing hard copy which comprise the steps of making color print using an ink-jet recording head, allowing the printed ink to become half-dry, applying a liquid coating agent to the recording medium while the ink is still wet, and thereafter applying uv(ultra violet) radiation to solidify the coating agent. These techniques claim the ability to produce print having high scratch resistance.
JP 2001-53943A discloses an image forming system that picks up color information and gloss information or non-gloss information from the image to be reproduced and which records image on a recording medium on the basis of the two kinds of information.
According to the disclosure, a landscape oil painting art is reproduced on a recording medium by means of an. ink-jet printer and varnish is then applied to the recording medium in an amount controlled in accordance with the intensity of gloss information, whereby the surface gloss of the image is so adjusted as to prepare a hard copy that faithfully reproduces the original image.
However, the surfaces of prints prepared by the above-described methods and image forming system are such that they are not fully capable of reproducing an image area that has predetermined surface properties and a desired degree of gloss. What is more, the thickness of a color ink layer that is formed from ink droplets ejected during image recording varies with the volume of ink ejection, so a thicker color ink layer forms in image areas of higher recording density, thus creating steps on the surface in accordance with the varying thickness of the color ink layer.